For sale. 7x OWC FireWire drive enclosures.

[mustagcoupe]

I am selling 7x clear plastic OWC mercury FireWire drive enclosures. They use the Oxford 911 chipset and take IDE drives, they also work with IDE to SATA adapters. 6 of them are FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 and one is FireWire 400 only. They are in decent to good cosmetic condition and have been cleaned and tested. They do not include drives. $15 each plus shipping. Note that the FireWire 400 only version has a different top cover logo than the rest and the back panel is laid out slightly differently.

I also have 1x 80GB IBM deskstar and 4x 120GB Hitachi deskstar IDE hard drives. These drives survived a complete format with zeros. They run hot and overheat in enclosed spaces like the plastic drive enclosures but seem to work fine out in the open or with ventilation. They don't make any unusual noises or excessive vibration. I am selling them for $5 each because they are 20 year old drives of questionable reliability.

[emendelson]

Question: are these bus-powered, or do they require a separate power supply? If bus-powered, I'd be glad to buy one of the FW800 models.

[ssp3]

I suggest you read this before buying bus powered, especially if you own TiBook.
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6800.msg52022.html#msg52022

[IIO]

i dont think they are, i had one, and can not remember to have run it without PSU.

and i have never seen buspowered enclosures in 3,5" form factor.

it is just too risky, especially because they (read: most of them) have more than one firewire bus and therefore can be daisychained in larger amounts. 5 harddisks are already hitting the 25 watts barrier.

[emendelson]

Understood. Thank you for those details. I'll do without...

[IIO]

is it very cool for portable SSD cases, since we do not have USB 2 in OS9.

but with that situation be careful that you do not forget to proply unmount the volume before removing.

[emendelson]

OWC claims these are bus-powered:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

But perhaps they shouldn't be used with old machines...

[IIO]

operating an SSD via firewire should mean less than <1 watts max, because of the limited transfer speed. no problem even for USB1.

but of course, no risk == no damage.

[IIO]

when i think about it, when i was using the 3,5 cases from the OP when had a firewire PCI card in my oldworld mac.

do they even provide power?

[ssp3]

operating an SSD via firewire should mean less than <1 watts max, because of the limited transfer speed. no problem even for USB1.

Les than 1 Watt? No way. Transfer speed does not matter. 

[IIO]

that is never the power consumption on a firewire 400 connection, that is what they require at SATA II controllers, where there transferrate is like 15 times higher.

if you do not read at all from an SSD it requires about 0,1 watts where a HD requires 3-5.

SSDs like the samsung QVO series require about 0,4 watts at 50mb/s and about 1,0 watts at 1000mb/s. at firewire 40mb/s is realistic.

great, now we have developed a new idea what to test next.

[IIO]

https://ssdsphere.com/ssd-power-consumption-comparison/

[mustagcoupe]

Question: are these bus-powered, or do they require a separate power supply? If bus-powered, I'd be glad to buy one of the FW800 models.

They are wall powered. They take 12v 3amp DC with a 5.5x2.1mm barrel jack. They are all FireWire 400, I do not have any FireWire 800 drives for sale

[emendelson]

Question: are these bus-powered, or do they require a separate power supply? If bus-powered, I'd be glad to buy one of the FW800 models.

They are wall powered. They take 12v 3amp DC with a 5.5x2.1mm barrel jack. They are all FireWire 400, I do not have any FireWire 800 drives for sale

I can't imagine how I got the idea that any of them are FW800; apologies for wasting time because of my own brain glitch.

[FBz]

There are Firewire 800 to 400 adapters and adapter cables...
but once these period-correct enclosures are gone, they are gone.
(Or so expensive nobody wants to buy 'em.)
I bought one! (Funky-cool.) 

Remember the old ADC to DVI monitor adapters?
They're now listed @ $250.00 - if you can find one.
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/23/10/10/1546249/vintage-mac-community-begs-manufacturers-for-new-supply-of-rare-dongle-as-resellers-charge-250

[ssp3]

FW800 enclosures are not that difficult to find on secondary market, BUT, most of them won't be OS9 bootable!
These probably will.

[emendelson]

FW800 enclosures are not that difficult to find on secondary market, BUT, most of them won't be OS9 bootable!
These probably will.

You're right - the external drives I have won't boot OS9. I've sent a PM to the original poster asking to buy the FW400-only unit, in the hope that it can boot OS9.